Man gets 20 years for murder-for-hire plot

Published: Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 3:20 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 3:20 p.m.

TAMPA — A former Latin King gang member who arranged a Tampa Bay area murder-for-hire plot has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

A Tampa federal judge sentenced Michael Garcia on Wednesday. He could have been sentenced to life, but the judge showed leniency because of Garcia's cooperation.

Prosecutors say 33-year-old Christie Fay Bottorff and her husband, 42-year-old Jerry Bottorff, hired 25-year-old Luis Angel Lopez to kill the woman's former husband, 37-year-old Thomas Lee Sehorne, in June 2007. The Tampa Tribune (http://bit.ly/XCVEKT) reports that Christie Fay Bottorff received $1 million in life insurance proceeds after the fatal shooting. She later married Jerry Bottorff.

The Bottorffs said Garcia, a friend, arranged the hit with Lopez.

The Bottorffs and Lopez have all been sentenced to life in prison.

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